thattitanguy:Kurmudgeon: GAT_00: Didn't get past the first listing. 2001 is not a cult film.

Neither is Star Wars

Too bad, thattitanguy.

Seriously, if there is any film in the world that says "cult film" it's Star Wars. People eat, breathe and shiat Star Wars. I freaking went to the theater 18 times when it was released. Not because of how popular or successful it was, but because I was an avid fan of the film and so was every other kid in our neighborhood, but many people didn't understand our fanatic devotion to it.

I say again: Cult status is about how obsessive their fan base is; not about whether or not there are a lot of fans or a little. If people are judging cult status on whether or not a movie had a lot of people saw or liked it then many flops could be a cult movie because there's bound to be someone out there who likes it. Obviously that's not the case, because I'm not likely to have someone come up to me at DragonCon dressed up as their favorite character from Ishtar.

Dude, seriously. There are people who fill out government forms and list their religion as "Jedi." Star Wars is the all time king of cult films. If Star Wars isn't a cult film, it's only because it has graduated into full-blown Religion Film.

thattitanguy:I say again: Cult status is about how obsessive their fan base is; not about whether or not there are a lot of fans or a little.

If that's the case, then little kids wanting McDonald's toys is a cult.Have to disagree on this one.Check this part of the definition at Merriam-Webster."5a : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad b : the object of such devotion c : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion "

Manos fans are a small cult, Star War fans, for example are not small in number. More of a mass hysteria if anything./Trekker.

Splinshints:Am I the only person on earth who thinks Lucio Fulci made absolute and complete crap from start to finish? Every single movie of his I've ever seen I've thought "boy, if it weren't for the gore there'd be nothing here at all". I'll grant you I haven't seen the one on the list, but given all his other garbage....

Bird With The Crystal Plumage is very good. It's an early film of his with not much gore, but it has a nice Hitchcockian plot.

And as far as cult films goes, anything made by David Lynch, David Cronenberg, or Takashi Miike qualify.

Kurmudgeon:thattitanguy: I say again: Cult status is about how obsessive their fan base is; not about whether or not there are a lot of fans or a little.

If that's the case, then little kids wanting McDonald's toys is a cult.Have to disagree on this one.Check this part of the definition at Merriam-Webster."5a : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad b : the object of such devotion c : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion "

Manos fans are a small cult, Star War fans, for example are not small in number. More of a mass hysteria if anything./Trekker.

There is definitely a cult of mcdonalds. This is their queen. But McDonalds is not a film, its a restaurant.

I didn't bother reading the entire list, as I quit once I saw that the "author" and I'm using that word in the loosest possible sense put Casablanca on the list. With that in mind was Phantom of the Paradise on there?

nightronin:I didn't bother reading the entire list, as I quit once I saw that the "author" and I'm using that word in the loosest possible sense put Casablanca on the list. With that in mind was Phantom of the Paradise on there?

nightronin:I didn't bother reading the entire list, as I quit once I saw that the "author" and I'm using that word in the loosest possible sense put Casablanca on the list. With that in mind was Phantom of the Paradise on there?

Kurmudgeon:thattitanguy: I say again: Cult status is about how obsessive their fan base is; not about whether or not there are a lot of fans or a little.

If that's the case, then little kids wanting McDonald's toys is a cult.Have to disagree on this one.Check this part of the definition at Merriam-Webster."5a : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad b : the object of such devotion c : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion "

Manos fans are a small cult, Star War fans, for example are not small in number. More of a mass hysteria if anything./Trekker.

Really??? Children aren't engaging in "cult-ish" behavior when they are obsessing over a toy... they just want a damn toy because they're kids. Kids obsess over things because they are still too immature to understand that they can't just have every thing they want when they want it.

Usually...it means commonly, not always. There are exceptions to the rule. Star Wars is a cult film because of the large number of people that are obsessive in their fandom of it... not in spite of it.

To use your example of Manos, before MST3K featured it few people even knew of it's existence. Over the years, through Misty and word of mouth that following grew... at what point does it change from a cult film to just film because it's fan base is larger than a cult film is "allowed" to have?

Rocky Horror Picture Show and Evil Dead are examples of films that are cult films but the base for it's fandom are much, much larger than it was when they achieved cult status. Hell, when Rocky made it's TV premiere on Fox back in 1993 it was a huge deal and brought in a large group of new fans... did that make it fall from cult status??

Nope, because cult status is about the fans and how they view the film. There are a lot of different cult films out there. Some are bad, some are fantastic; some were successful, some not so much so; same have a few followers and some have millions, but the one thing that ALL cult films have in common are their rampant, obsessively loyal fan base and the things that they do to express their love of the film.

Picking nits at this point, but in my youth there were quite a few brain cells lost to repeated midnight showings of The Song Remains The Same.And mostly to show off as a Canadian... Highway 61 or pretty much anything else by Bruce McDonald.

skepticultist:Kurmudgeon: thattitanguy: I say again: Cult status is about how obsessive their fan base is; not about whether or not there are a lot of fans or a little.

If that's the case, then little kids wanting McDonald's toys is a cult.Have to disagree on this one.Check this part of the definition at Merriam-Webster."5a : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad b : the object of such devotion c : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion "

Manos fans are a small cult, Star War fans, for example are not small in number. More of a mass hysteria if anything./Trekker.

There is definitely a cult of mcdonalds. This is their queen. But McDonalds is not a film, its a restaurant.

The Livejournal linked says that it was a Halloween costume that turned into an odd art project over the course of a year. Also, at last the origin and explanation has been found for this thing:

Gordon Bennett:skepticultist: Kurmudgeon: thattitanguy: I say again: Cult status is about how obsessive their fan base is; not about whether or not there are a lot of fans or a little.

If that's the case, then little kids wanting McDonald's toys is a cult.Have to disagree on this one.Check this part of the definition at Merriam-Webster."5a : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad b : the object of such devotion c : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion "

Manos fans are a small cult, Star War fans, for example are not small in number. More of a mass hysteria if anything./Trekker.

There is definitely a cult of mcdonalds. This is their queen. But McDonalds is not a film, its a restaurant.

The Livejournal linked says that it was a Halloween costume that turned into an odd art project over the course of a year. Also, at last the origin and explanation has been found for this thing:

thattitanguy:2. Fans of the film need to become passionately connected to the film in a manner that goes beyond normal appreciation of a film. That includes going to conventions, cosplaying, midnight viewings, fan communities or continual reviewing in both larger and smaller scales that help foster a sense of belonging.

That isn't true of the movies I've heard called "cult." Archetypal cult movies are Repo Man, Delicatessen, Harold and Maude, movies like that. Cosplay and conventions have nothing to do with it. Not that "Cannibal! The Musical" cosplay wouldn't be awesome, and maybe it does exist, but it's a cult movie whether anybody does cosplay or not.

If I had to create a definition of "cult movie" that reflects the usage of the word, here's what I would say:

1. It has an intense appeal to a small number of people, and the appeal drops off sharply in the rest of the population.2. Wider exposure for the movie does not lead to a larger proportion sharing that intense appreciation. (It isn't an undiscovered classic with universal appeal.)3. Neither the appeal nor the lack of appeal is caused by artsy aesthetics, objectionable ideas, or uncomfortable subjects. (This rule is needed to filter out abstruse cinephile fare, Nazi propaganda films, and films like "Breaking the Waves" that are great movies but emotionally difficult to watch.)

"Harold and Maude" is a classic example of a cult movie. Personally, I think it's a really good movie. Those who love, it, though, have an entirely different perspective on it. I know a girl who watched that movie dozens of times and said it changed her life. She was driving to her parents' for Christmas one year and realized she left her copy at home, so she stopped and bought another copy on the way. That was a couple of years after she first watched it. She used to watch it every time she thought about committing suicide. If you graphed how much people like "Harold and Maude" on the Y axis and population percentile on the X axis, you'd have a normal-looking looking graph. Some people wouldn't get anything out of it, and a lot of people think it's pretty good, some people think it's an excellent film. An entirely normal-looking graph, except that at the very edge of the graph, the top 1/100th of one percent , you find people like my friend who love it with an intensity that is baffling to everyone else.

A less extreme example is "Cannibal! The Musical." I think it's a work of comic genius. It would certainly make my list of top 50 comedies. I know one person who shares that opinion, and everyone else I've showed it to has thought it was just not very good. I even showed it to a guy who likes silly gory horror films and The Kentucky Fried Movie, so you know he wasn't offended or grossed out. He was bored.

If you could predict who would like a cult movie based on their interests, it probably wouldn't be a cult movie. I like speculative fiction. I liked "Akira." I work with technology and am interested in how interacting with technology changes people. I read Crash and liked it. I'm supposed to like "Tetsuo: The Iron Man" then, right? Nope. Bored the hell out of me. Glad I never have to watch it again. Apparently it has a cult following, though.

My definition is still vague, but the sharp spike at the edge of the graph is key. There are people who live and breath Star Wars, but the curve leading up to those people is gradual.

The term "cult movie" has an established usage that can't be derived from the definitions of "cult" and "movie." I remember how taken aback I was when my college roommate told me his father had a huge collection of teen exploitation movies. Like anybody else who had never heard the term before would have, I thought he was talking about his father's porn collection. The meaning of words used together doesn't always have the obvious or strictly logical relationship with what the words mean separately.

I guess "Mad Max" doesn't fit because of its wide appeal but it does have a cult following in the motorcycling world.By the definitions I've seen in this thread, however, "Stone" definitely fits.Oh, here's another one: "Quest for the Mighty Sword." I watched that movie about a hundred times with my kids, laughed every time.